(Feature Image from mmanews.com)
It was a great night in Vegas as UFC 269 brought an incredible event with some fantastic main cards and some exciting prelims too, whilst Oliveira was able to hang onto his belt and continue his run of great form against a formidable Poirier, the news of the night instead turns to the woman’s division once again with a stunning performance and one of the biggest upsets in the fight game to date – but what happened, and will history repeat itself in a potential rematch that could come very soon in the future?
The women’s fight game has been on another level for a while – the battles between Thug Rose, Zhang Weili, and Joanna Jedrzejczyk really put the strawweight division on the map. Valentina Shevchenko has been in a bit of a league of her own too with six title defences and eight straight victories, but with little hope of a rematch between Shevchenko and Nunes, interest is turning elsewhere. The two-division champ Amanda Nunes has looked unbeatable and crowned as an MMA goat for a string of incredible performances and the total dominance at the top of the women’s division, but the 135-pound title was given up after a fantastic performance from Julianna Pena.
Nunes went in as the clear favourite at -1,100 for most bookies like the biggest found at bet-nj.com, and with Pena being a submission fighter it was expected that Nunes would just end things on the feet as she has in the past – but being able to string together some impressive combinations in the second round, Pena was able to out-trade Nunes and show some real fighting spirit before getting it to a grappling position where the favoured submission style would come out on top and secure the win – Nunes was of course guaranteed and immediate rematch if she were to want it, which seems very likely, but can she looked better in the second?
The first round looked as impressive as ever but started to slip in the second, perhaps it was overconfidence and a lack of respect for the power Pena would have or something else behind the scenes that would impact performance, but Nunes will certainly need to go away and do some analysing and come into the second fight with some more preparation. It’s likely she’ll go in as the favourite despite having lost the previous fight, and the pressure will be on Pena to defend, but it’s always exciting to see movement at the top and the potential for Nunes to look good in a rematch is there with the right preparation.
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